A sheltered simpleton who only knows what he's watched on TV becomes a presidential advisor.

Editor's Note

BEING THERE is based on Jerzy Kosinski's short comic novel about a simpleton, Chance (Peter Sellers), raised in isolation whose only education came from watching TV. When he's forced out of the house where he worked as a gardener by the death of the wealthy recluse who raised him from infancy, he's fortuitously struck by a limousine carrying Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine), the wife of a wealthy industrialist. He's mistaken, because of his well-tailored suits, for a man of means and taken to dinner with her husband, Ben Rand (Melvyn Douglas). There, as Chauncy Gardner, his blank affect is taken for seriousness and his literal pronouncements about gardening for metaphoric economic predictions. Soon he's meeting the president (Jack Warden) and becoming a star on TV--where he's a natural.

Kosinski was well known to be personally fascinated by the power of television. In BEING THERE, which he adapted for the screen himself, he presents a comic fable about a man whose entire sense of reality came from watching television. Sellers is marvelous as the always-deadpan cipher in whom everyone he meets sees whatever it is they need to see. Shirley MacLaine, Jack Warden, and Melvyn Douglas give outstanding performances in this biting satire directed by Hal Ashby.

Professional Reviews

New York Times "...A stately, beautifully acted satire....Sellers never strikes a false note..." 12/20/1979 p.C20

Chicago Sun-Times "...A rare and subtle bird that finds its tone and sticks with it. It has the appeal of an ingenious intellectual game..." 05/25/1997 p.5

Premiere "[Chance] is a cipher both funny and frightening, making utter vacancy look like Zen inscrutability." 04/01/2004 p.64

Empire 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] strange, evocative swan song whose charm is still strong after 30 years....It's an uncanny part for Sellers, who by repute was an empty vessel into which characters were poured." 03/01/2009

Total Film 4 stars out of 5 -- "Peter Sellers redeemed himself with one last major turn in BEING THERE....This is an exceptional comedy..." 04/01/2009

Product Attributes

Video Format:

DVD

Customer Reviews of Being There

Most Recent Reviews

A little gardener as bodhisattva

5/6/2012

When I bought my elderly parents their first VCR, I had BEING THERE in the deck ready to play when I hooked it up for them(the second movie was "Harvey"). FORREST GUMP(the movie only)hints at the essence of Chance the gardener when Gump is running, & doesn't know why everybody's following him. Graham Chapman's Brian Cohn in LIFE OF BRIAN doesn't know why and doesn't want any followers. Chance is the true idiot savant who doesn't know or care that people are hanging on his every word. Both movie and film are gentle, peaceful looks at modern society, the media, and the messianic fixations therein. This was the next-to-last film for both Melvyn Douglas and Peter Sellers, and is also the first film I can remember that finishes with outtakes, as Sellers busts up trying to get out a line. BEING THERE is a wonderful film with a wonderful cast, and it is as deep as you want it to be. Take it at face value as the story of a man who is misunderstood by everyone, and just enjoy it. After Jerzy Kosinski's tortured youth, that he could come up with this still amazes me.

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